Hundreds of people from across the region participated in a Roman Catholic Mass and subsequent march Saturday to demonstrate their opposition to legal abortion.

The events began with Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, 1200 S. Washington St., celebrated by Diocese of Amarillo Bishop Patrick J. Zurek and priests from Amarillo and elsewhere in the Texas Panhandle. About 450 people attended the Mass, and nearly two-thirds of that group participated in the Walk for Life, said diocesan spokesman Chris Albracht.

Demonstrators walked from St. Mary’s to Haven Health Clinics, 1501 S. Taylor St. The event brought people together to pray for courage and support to continue battling abortion until its legality is overturned, Zurek said.

Haven Health Clinics offers several services, including contraceptives, basic infertility services and pregnancy testing, but does not perform abortions, according to its website.

The walk nearly coincided with the 39th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which established abortion as a constitutional right. That decision launched a new era in grass-roots organizing and legislative activity designed to either reduce or increase the accessibility of legal abortions.

Texas legislators last year passed a sonogram law requiring abortion providers to perform a sonogram on a fetus and describe the test’s results at least 24 hours before a woman undergoes the procedure. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered abortion clinics to begin enforcing the law immediately on Jan. 13, even as the law’s constitutionality is contested elsewhere in the legal system.

Stephanie Frausto, Respect for Life director for the diocese, said that last year was a “big, big victory,” for anti-abortion advocates, but supporters need to persevere until abortion becomes illegal.

The focus is letting people know the chaos and pain abortion causes to marriages and communities, she said.

“We’re here to build them back up,” she said.

Claudia Stravato, former executive director of Planned Parenthood, said abortion is hardly available in the United States, and 93 percent of Texas’ 254 counties do not offer abortion services.

“Nothing is available here,” Stravato said. “The closest place is to go to Midland or New Mexico.”

Stravato said women’s abortion rights have been whittled away since the mid-1990s.

“I don’t know if we have a lot to rejoice about,” she said. “Women’s bodies are the most political things on Earth, and if you try in any way to tamper with reproduction, men go crazy. And now, they are after the birth control — what they were always after.”

State legislators last year slashed family planning funding by nearly two-thirds, severing women’s access to check-ups and birth control. Stravato said abortion and birth control go hand-in-hand.

“If you’re going to make people who are ill-equipped raise a child, it’s your responsibility to raise the babies,” Stravato said. “And they will not do that. They say they will, but I don’t see them doing that.”